Since the derailment accident on August 10, 2020, the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) had been working on repairing the damage at Gotthard Base Tunnel. The 57 kilometer long tunnel is the longest railway tunnel in the world. SBB has announced that soon the trains will be rolling through the western tube of the tunnel as early as September 2.

The first trains drive again through the western tube of the Gotthard base tunnel

The SBB assumes that the Gotthard base tunnel will be completely available for travel and freight trains from September 2, 2024. The test operation was successfully completed. Now the trial operation is in the corridor. SBB regularly informs the media about the status of the work.

The work with regard to the full restart of the world's longest railway tunnels in the world with 57 kilometers are still on track. Since today, August 19, 2024, trains are again operating through the repaired western tube as part of the trial operation.

After the successful completion of the test operation last week and with the corresponding approval of the Federal Office of Transport, a commercial train for the first time, August 19, 2024, was once again able to drive through the repaired western tube of the Gotthard Basist tunnel. It was the morning spring with departure at 5.30 a.m. in Chiasso towards Basel SBB. The second train was a freight train from Ludwigshafen (Germany) after Gallarate (Italy).

With regard to the complete restart of the Gotthard base tunnel on September 2, 2024, SBB carries out a test and trial operation, similar to how this was done before the tunnel was commissioned in 2016. The test operation with measurement, test and service trains was successfully completed last week.

Different cleaning passes and starting the trial operation

The SBB repeatedly carries out cleaning passages before fully restarting. For the optimal interaction with cleaning, the trains run from north to south through the western tube of the Gotthard Basist tunnel.

Full half -hourly start from the restarting

From the full recovery on September 2, 2024, all intercity and Eurocity trains as well as all freight trains between German-speaking Switzerland and Ticino will again take the Gotthard Basist tunnel. The travelers get from the north to southern Switzerland for an hour faster again and this for the first time all day every half hour.

source: https://news.sbb.ch/medien/artikel/124073/erste-zuege-fahren-wieder-durch-die-westroehre-des-gotthard-basistunnels